North Manchester, IN - The Bluffton College Beaver cross country teams competed against a tough line-up of Indiana squads this weekend at the Manchester College Invitational. Under beautiful mostly sunny sky and lower 50-degree temperature, the women's team ran to an 8thplace finish and the men earned 7th in the meet. Two conference teams ran the race and while the women were defeated by both the men were defeated by Manchester yet held of the Franklin College Grizzlies for the first win against the Grizzlies in the history of the men's program.
Once again the women started the day and once again it was a different woman on the women's team to lead the effort. Freshman Lauren Bailey displayed a fine performance on the course as she took charge of the race in the first mile and stayed consistent throughout the contest to place 18th overall in a collegiate best time of 20:40. A nice pack of three followed not too far behind Bailey as Carrie Hudecek finish 28th in a 21:02, Lauren Borga earned 30th in a 21:04, and Jennifer Creamer ran 21:09 over the 5,000m course, good for 32nd. Also scoring for the Beavers was Stephanie Welch who finished 50th in a 21:51. Running strong behind Welch was Rachel Noirot (62nd/22:23), Laurie Sanford back from injury (72nd/23:40), Meggan Hartzog in her first collegiate race (74th/23:46), and Alicia Stanko (82nd/24:24).
The men took on the course's challenge after the women and showed some of the best pack running of the season. The team was lead for the first time this year by freshman Dave Espinoza. Espinoza got out tough in the race and managed his splits under the 6 minute barrier to finish the 8,000m race in 28:26, which earned him 27th place overall. The men also had a pack of three behind their lead runner as Jordan Bruner struggled to a 37th place finish in 29:12. Patrick Cooley looked solid the last 1 miles to finish third on the team in 39th place running a 29:19 and Justin Crites, coming from a short lay-off hung on for 41st place in a 29:21. Chris Wojociechowski finished off the scoring for the Beavers coming across the finish in 54thplace, running a 30:19.
"The amount of 90 degree turns on this course definitely played a part in slowing down the times today," said Coach Derek Stanley. "The teams are showing progress in the packing method but there are still some breakout performances that haven't happened yet. It will happen for us, it's just a matter of time," Stanley added.
The next time the Beavers will be in competition is at the HCAC Championships on November 1. Race times follow the Regional schedule, therefore men run at 11:00am and women at 12:00pm. The meet is hosted by Transylvania University and will be held at Woodford Co. Park in Versailles, KY.